Open Wings

If you draw a bird from her nest,
away from her elaborate labors,
seducing her with seed —
If you draw the curtains apart
so she sees your cupped hand
beckoning at the sill —
If you draw water to fill the stone bath
where she drinks and preens
and washes her wings —
when she comes, open-winged,
her throat filled with music,
will she bring you back to yourself?

“Open Wings” is reprinted from Marcia Falk’s “The Days Between: Blessings, Poems, and Directions of the Heart for the Jewish High Holiday Season” (Brandeis University Press, 2014). The 20th-anniversary edition of Falk’s “The Book of Blessings: New Jewish Prayers for Daily Life, the Sabbath, and the New Moon Festival,” will be out from CCAR Press in September.